v18: noir&blanc

sherlene

the girl's 18. stuck on a small island, also known as the little red dot on the global map. presently living a mundane life contributing to the unemployment rate and chionging driving lessons are what she does nearly daily. well, here records some of the interesting and amusing moments she enjoys. :D

turns 365 days older on the 7th of Nov and is deeply in love with the colour purple. currently indulging in SUPER JUNIOR! :D

Super Junior M - 迷 (Me)

get it in stores 2 or 9 May depending on your region!

favourites

corkboard

statistics

hooligans crashed & graffitied.

currently hooligan(s) rotting here.

extreme tracker

Freitag, Februar 29

pei pa koa 11:20 PM

okay for the record im sick again.
and i just had to blog on a special day like today. haha.

the last time i was sick was like... 10 days ago?
i seriously have no idea whats wrong with my immune system.
its going haywireeeeeeeeee.

argh. and i just had to force myself to go for driving today.
bah anyhow was quite happy i managed to muster enough strength to clutch in fully at those freaking traffic junctions. and change down in time too! just need more practice... rawr.

tokidoki and hello kitty! haha.

Labels: sick

Mittwoch, Februar 27

WAT 8:46 PM

been looking through forums and i saw this really interesting prog which i read about in the papers long time ago.

it looks damn interesting.
i'm gonna aspire to join it!
ah okay. and must start saving up already!

wow. pink fringe!

Labels: wants, xiaozhu

dreams were meant for realizing 1:55 AM

something which caught my eye since young...

especially when staring out of the car.

& that same thing which caught my eye online....

haha and i went to the website. the new beetle convertible super cool! ah man. i think it costs >100k excl COE here. darn. haha i even went to play with the "Build Your New Beetle" function. the laser blue looks cool man. and so does my sunflower yellow! haha.

anyhow, i suppose results are not out this friday then.
:(

sigh another week of excruciating agony.
driving early tomorrow. okay i should go sleep now.

Labels: sian, wants

Montag, Februar 25

99% cacao 10:50 PM

Sentosa Flowers! =]

on the luge with chiew and danny.

the skyride which got me screaming cos it was pretty high up! :(

Dinner on Sat with Marche Gang! :D

crazy shit sis' pose is so funny. hah! our delicious fruit crepe!

ok thats part of the food. darn they didnt have soft shell crab anymore!

right, we got dragged into taking a photo outside Starhub and hence causing people to stop for us. maluating! haha.

=) missed them loads.

xxxxx

okay so i guess my gut feeling tells me its this Fri. :)
i shall just look to it optimistically!
:D :D :D yay.

driving today was much better, i guess clutch management improves with practice. like duh but sometimes people need good coordination as well! haha. darn i cant seem to gauge when i should brake. i keep braking too late and then its harder to change down the gear. rawr.

my instructor sly says i can drive further to Tampines next lesson. today he surprised me by asking me to take a route which i haven't driven before. felt damn scary travelling in some unknown area. and pressurized cos the rest of the world's utilizing auto cars while i struggle with the clutch esp at traffic lights due to muscle aches and when moving off and accidentally flooring the accelerator.

haha. driving's fun anyway. i wanna drive on the road! but not alone i guess.
got my reserved TP date already! bah!

oh, STAGE is coming to SG. haha the whole flock of fanatics will sure send in their CVs man. haha Royal Princess 1! we go also! lol.

xxxxx

hey B, you are missed too! and your hamster really reminds me of little B. its been 2 years already. oh man thats like super long. we should go kbox soon and sing our specialty song. haha! and i doubt you'd want me to drive you around unless you're guaranteed insurance. in the mean time, i shall hone my skills so i can give you more assurance! haha. i miss miss everyone. :(

sigh everyone's like as busy again. okay i'll plan outing after results.
p.s thanks so much for all the advice recently! didn't know who i could turn but you were such a great help! :D much loves!

Labels: driving, happy, marchegang

Donnerstag, Februar 21

cherish the moment 10:03 PM

I just want to see you
When you're all alone
I just want to catch you if I can
I just want to be there
When the morning light explodes
On your face it radiates
I cant escape
I love you till the end

I just want to tell you nothing
You don't want to hear
All I want is for you to say
Why don't you just take me
Where Ive never been before
I know you want to hear me
Catch my breath
I love you till the end

I just want to be there
When were caught in the rain
I just want to see you laugh not cry
I just want to feel you
When the night puts on its cloak
I'm lost for words don't tell me
All I can say
I love you till the end

P.S I Love You
a box of tissues is a must for the soft-hearted. too touching man. its just... heart-wrenching at some parts while portraying the power of love! and teaches you to cherish your loved ones while they're still right by you. :'( ah. okay.

REALLY, GO WATCH IT. i declare it nicer than Jumper AND Juno! haha. love the song man. its so sweet.

and and they filmed it in IRELAND! haha Westlife's hometown! :D lol. and Westlife is Holly's favourite band, in the book that is.

yep... its just so heart-warming as well. am reading the book now! haha thanks to bel who bought it. hmmmm. i guess once again i'll prefer the adaptation more. hah!

Gerard Butler really reminds me of the Spanish guy on AMI. haha the one that kept kissing everybody. and his accent is so not Irish, more like Spanish!

Jumper
such a confusing movie where all they do is jump, jump, jump. right. haha although Tokyo was very much chocolate for the eyes and Rome and Italy as well... it was basically a movie which lacked a firm storyline. and it just hangs there right at the end. :S yeah there's supposed to be a Jumper 2. i guess its great for travel buffs like me in one sense, you get to see filming locations such as Tokyo, Italy, Rome, Egypt and Mexico, besides USA and Canada. wonder how much they blew on it man. sigh but this big-budget movie was ruined by the horrible plot. bah!

okay, gotta admit the effects were good but it got kinda sickening after awhile cos of the jumping around. haha. ah well, Hayden Christensen's good exercise for the eyes. hah.

xxxxx

anyway i finally got on the road today. whoa stressful man. and some taxi horned at me! argh! just cos i moved off too slowly. well not really but then i didnt see the green light, and like 1 sec later he horned alr la! walaoeh! learner driver cannot see meh!? *!&@*!&@*&! okay. haha. apologize for the ranting. and becos of that i stalled. isnt it worse for pressurizing a learner driver! tskkkkk. haha chiew said they want learner drivers to fail so they wont lose potential customers, if not people will drive themselves around already. hah!

i just hope i wont need to go up to gear 4 unless i'm trained well enough. if not sure panic at junctions one, with the gear-shifting and clutch-engaging. sigh.

today was spent hanging out with the girls :) missed those times man! and i miss school! going back for the choir con to support Mei!

yep. i think results are out next week. ah!
:0

Labels: movie, music, stressed

Dienstag, Februar 19

China Part II 9:34 PM

okay i'm going very slow at this, but then for keepsake purposes, i'm motivated to continue with my journey! muahahaha :)

Day 3: 6 Jan 08 Sun 无锡>南京
morning breakfast was as usual. mix of american breakfast dishes as well as porridge and other what-nots. and the other group that was with us kept smoking indoors!! for goodness sake. :( choking my lungs man! anyhow, not allowing them to dampen our spirits, heh.

however, we were brought to this Pearl Factory place which sold jewellery and beauty products like pearl capsules and cream. got some cream which so far has been good in getting rid of the pimples! haha. and erm mama bought a pearl bracelet. was pretty happy cos they were like explaining all the stuff to us and we were asked to guess how many man-made pearls were inside the shell, and i guessed correctly! its 20, but differs per shell la. :) those natural ones are of cos of ex and rare, like 3-4 pearls per shell if i'm not wrong. and then they told us how to distinguish between natural and man-made ones.

and then it was already lunch time and we headed for an early lunch as there was another 3-4 hrs of seat-warming on the way to 南京. :)　

see how much food we had! for 2 people! the steam egg on my right was yummy cos they had silver fish 银鱼 inside! and i got my red jacket on Day 1 at 观前街 for RMB29 haha which is S$6! but it spoilt after that day. cos the darn zip was faulty! sigh so wasted. was hoping i could add another one to my collection of 'bazhang' jackets. haha.

and we had this dish as well. it wasnt to my liking actually. super tiny ok! like just 0.5cm bigger than your thumb nail! and you had to eat it with the shell and its like 90% shell there's hardly any meat at all. haha.

so after that we went down to Nanjing 南京, which is the most northern area we're visiting this time round. and after we came back... actually like on the last day we were there in Shanghai, i think it started snowing already! like so wth la. missed it by a few days! and the weather forecast isnt always that accurate after all. ahaha.

first stop after arriving at 南京 was 美龄宫, wife of Chiang Kai-Shek 蔣介石 (click). the Song family was a really prestigious and renowned family in the past, with all the elites occupying spaces as family members. her sister 宋庆龄 is wife of 孙中山... yup. had lots of history sessions when i was there. haha!

thats her pretty room which is so damn spacious. really cant imagine like... 贵人 living inside this mansion in the past! and their King size bed is still quite small.. haha can see our reflection in the mirror.

and her bathroom, where simplicity plays a prominent role. but the deck chair is like... so weird and out of place. lol. a very simple sink and bath tub as well.

later on, we drove by the 梅花山 which actually is nothing much cos its winter and all the leaves have fallen as well as the flowers, except for this species called the Wintersweet, i forgot what our LG told us what it was in Chinese.. oh ya! 腊梅 i think. click for the wiki.. it was pretty and we saw it at 美龄宫 :)

i must add on, i felt that our LG for Nanjing was the best through out. very descriptive with his explanations and stuff and not to the extent where you felt like shutting your ears... which i felt like in Korea. =X but yeah. he's a uni geog lecturer there! haha cool. perhaps he majored in geog and history together! wah thats like... super content heavy la. and so we stopped by this river or lake, im not sure to take pictures against the scenery and the white trees. haha. every single tree in China is half white. like seriously. im still unsure if they get people to individually paint them, tall short thin wide, or its some kind of fertiliser that enables them to grow white bark and to prevent pests or something like that.

we drove by the 台城 and 明城墙 as well, which is a city wall indirectly translated la. and then it was shopping and sightseeing at 夫子庙! which i enjoyed soooo much. haha other than shopping in Shanghai.

the first giganormous ad poster by Metersbonwe with Jay, Will and Angela. ahhaa i think Will looks damn cute in that pose. and their winter clothes are damn gorgeous i cannot tahan. really wanted to buy! :( sigh hhaah that day Giffy was saying SG and Bangkok might snow soon. lol! haha maybe i'll have a chance to wear winter clothes in SG! :D hahah at snow city perhaps. :(

i bought 3 pakets of this 状元豆 which weighs 1.5kg in total. and then mum complained so blardy much cos it was heavy. (ya, 1.5kg heavy compared to her 8kg worth of silk blankets) and then today (13/2) i found out that they all grew mould! didnt put them in the fridge. i feel so upset man. sigh.. but they were really nice to eat la.

i managed to get my dvds from here! so happy got like about 7 movies and 3 hk serials! :D and cheap also! like S$2 for serials and S$1.20 for movies! and they're of super good quality one. not shaky type taken from cinemas. haha.

so Mum anticipated that we'll be buying more and exceeding our budget, we decided to get another luggage. which turned out to be too small. hahaha. even though it was S$7.

we had dinner at this pretty high class restaurant later on. which was like filled with gold walls and gold cutlery and stuff. 6 Jan seemed to be a good day for marriages, saw like 2 couples earlier on in the day and 1 at the restaurant and another at the hotel we were staying at. haha. they had Mickey and Minnie to stand beside the bride and groom! and when VIPs arrived, they released firecrackers! like wah i almost got a shock of my life i actually thought it was some bomb scare. like seriously loud... haha. so grand and cool! even the ceiling is also like painted gold. with gold-plated stuff all over.

food was quite salty as usual. and we had 盐水鸭 which is salt-water duck. it was a cold dish but still salty! but i enjoyed it though.

at night, we checked into 珍宝假日饭店. hahaha and it was more soaking in the bathtub and watching of moreeeeeeeee tv. lol. if im not wrong it was the transparent bathroom type! haha and the curtain luckily this time, was on the inside! heng ah. so people outside cannot threaten to expose you and your flaws! LOL.

Day 3: 7 Jan 08 Mon 南京>杭州
morning breakfast was getting quite mundane with practically the same type of menu la. sad. so early our LG met us and then we went on to the 南京长江大桥. but unfortunately it was like so foggy please! so upsetting. can barely see anything. but fog = less cold. so the elders were very elated that their butts weren't getting frozen. haha.

you can tell it was quite cold still. haha, all our hoods/beanies were in action! and the visibility was quite bad, you can't exactly see the end of the bridge. then we went to the basement after that, where there was this 师傅 painting glass balls. if i'm not wrong, his father was the one who supervised the whole process of building this bridge but didnt live long enough to watch its completion, and as years passed, the quality and standards of the bridge deteriorated and there was a lack of funds to renovate and upgrade it. so the 师傅 is doing some charity thing to sell his intricately hand-painted glass balls to raise funds to maintain this bridge.

so our LG was saying we were quite 'lucky' (dunno whether true or not) that the 师傅 was in that day and if we wanted to write anything inside the glass ball we bought, like our name or some auspicious saying, we would benefit from his proficient calligraphy la...

but its really cool cos they gotta paint it inside-out? through this small hole at the bottom of the ball where you place the stand... ya you gotta paint through it. but its not cheap. Mama got one at S$40... but it was pretty. and the ones selling at this Vivo China stuff fair are like daylight robbery la! they're selling like 5 times more and i bet it was drawn by students, cos those by the students are obviously much cheaper than the 师傅's. haha.

after visiting the Yangtze River Bridge, we went to this Jade Factory... yeah factory again. haha and extortion almost begins. browsed through as usual. made a jade Snake keychain thing with my name stamp. :) pretty cool. then had lunch there and we were off to 杭州. if i dont remember wrongly the journey from 南京 to 杭州 was the longest of all. :( hahah oh, some anecdote. the toilet doors there were quite short. i dont know the exact reason behind it. maybe to save on materials? haha so when people stand up you can see their heads, which is quite a funny sight. haha.

and then we finally arrived and met our LG which i disliked the most out of all of them. haha, ah well.

i guess this is the 钱塘江大桥 which we saw. quite cool huh! got a train running below. haha i managed to capture the moment the train passed by. went for dinner at this restaurant which we didn't enjoy as much as the rest cos there were these boisterous and rowdy waiters who'd stand in the room we were eating in through out the meal. i mean, yes, its like based on service standards but they dont need to like stare at us eating! it was really uncomfortable and awkward. and then they'd like push each other around the corridor outside and stuff. :( sigh spoilt my appetite.

after that we headed for this 西湖之夜 performance. which was of like Chinese acrobatic acts and musical stuff. quite nice la. and the interior of the theatre was well-furnished, seemed quite new to me. i think it was quite ex... like S$20+ per ticket.

haha this boy did a super balancing act la. and he failed the first time to toss the spoon from his platform (where his legs were on top of) onto this bowl on his head. then i took a superb picture on his successful 2nd try! i'm like so pro la! hahah. okay =X

ya so basically it was some acrobatics show and some musical stuff. saw a 达芙妮 Daphne (click) shop around the corner of the theatre! like wah first time in China! i was so upset i didnt see anymore in Shanghai :( haha saw some S.H.E ads there and i love the song they did for the endorsement, 好心情 Just Be Yourself! :D its a happy song haha! so i got a bag at a good price! like S$20 only! i wanted to get their footwear but its mostly boots for winter. :(

and it was late already, so we checked into our hotel 杭州江景戴斯大酒店. haha the tv at this hotel sucked the most cos there were lesser cable channels, and they kept having this "Welcome to Days Hotel" sign which appeared like after you channel-surfed. damn irritating.

xxxxx

phew, ok i finally finished typing everything! and i passed my BTT! but my FTT is like so long more! end apr! darn. :( okay i shall go edit those 乌镇 pictures as well as 上海.

p.s/ i think dyt's quite cute. haha. fang youfang. lol.

Labels: holiday, tired

Sonntag, Februar 17

cornflowers 11:59 PM

this is a horribly hook-able game. urgh. haha. which makes my next most-wanted item, besides a Coach long wallet, is a Wii! okay i mean my DS isn't that old, and its serving me well, just that the joy of getting muscle aches due to Wii-ing is overwhelming!

okay i guess i'm getting crazy.
Mum says if i get 3 As she'll get me a Wii immediately.

HMMM...

xxxxx

darn i so need to change my layout. been sourcing for inspiration now! and erm yes, on my way to completing my China travelogue. going at snail pace cos there's dozens of pretty ones (much better than those taken saying annyeonghaseyo, but nevertheless, the latters' has gorgeous ones as well) and lots of captions to add!

anyhow, dinner at cousin's was spent relishing Wii-time. haha. alright, BTT tmr. :D

Labels: study, tired, wants

Freitag, Februar 15

anyone else but you 8:23 PM

urgh the horrigible incorrigible viruses omnipresent in the air kinda disgusts me every time i think of them. once again, oh great world, i'm sick. yes for that record the past 3 times in the prev 2 weeks i was sick were all before i had to report to work! bleah. whats wrong with my immune system. dammnit shit.

and because of my throat infection plus idunnowhatelse, i couldnt send Elis off! :( she's on her way now to Perth anyway and i wish her all the best in whatever she does :)

Juno's (click) been such a cute movie with those indie rock tunes that gives a whole lot of other feeling into the movie. go watch it! its realllly nice. haha. next up shall be P.S I Love You! (click) :D

hopefully i'll get to watch Jumper (click) next week as well! Anyone Else But You by Ellen Page and Michael Cera from Juno's super adorable. go listen to it! i cant seem to find the full song... so argh.

yep okay i should rest. blah.

Labels: movie, sick

Mittwoch, Februar 13

walking on sunshine 8:55 PM

yippety-upppppppppp!
okay i dunno why i just felt like saying that. haha. cny binging has been a whole great fun. like oh great! :D :D :D minus the pounds and calories and fats and other nonsensical scientific terms related to the human diet. :(

double sob sob.
work's been pretty sucky. alright i wouldn't call it work since its just some part-time job and i'm still holding onto my horses thinking whether i should commit to a temp job full time and sacrifice my driving. but i dont want to! haha even though it sucks having to get up early (i.e 7.30am), yes, in contrast to schooling life when 6.30am is the norm. hah! but then yea it sucks! and then chionging for the bus since the workaholics are all ready to pile into it. i wonder why buses dont have some weight-exceeding device that beep when its overloaded.

anyhow! work's been fun cos i've got great company! haha the colleagues have been quite nice and there's chiew, danny, bryan and others and a wonderful boss like Mel! haha.

p.s we went on the luge yesterday as well as the skyride! :D
heh. oops. but it was superbly, amazingly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious fun! lol. and i was practically screaming till i got hoarse on the skyride cos it was so damn blardy high and there wasn't any protective netting below you, not like the netting will help much but it works loads on the mental component for me! and much more laughter after Danny hit his head against the safety bar. and chiew and i sat wrongly! haha damn funny. okay. i should go back to my China travelogue. :)
something i'd like: click. :D

Labels: tired

Montag, Februar 11

wines in angpaos 6:58 PM

experienced deflation. sad. :( unlike the other 23-ers. seemed like their angpaos inflated. ah well. anyhow, felt this year's CNY was perhaps better than last year's.

i seemed to be on my lappie watching shows/movies the whole of last year's. haha! more talking and interacting this year, esp with Giffy's (Thai friend) friends who were Korean. haha so had topics like skiing and stuff. and we played mahjong tog! which i lost 1.60 :( hahah the Korean guys were quite pro. and one of them had at least a 90% resemblance to Masi Oka! oh man! haha one of their names really cool. Kyu Sang i thing. lol. then Sharon asked how to say handsome guy in Korean and he was like "Kyu Sang" haha and she actually repeated! so funny! and then Cindy introduced us to him and he kept repeating our names in the order we were sitting from the mj table. lol.

Masi Oka aka Hiro Nakamura

and yeah its so cool to have foreign friends!

speaking of which, my new love is...

Giffy just asked me to try a superb glass and i got hooked! but i still prefer the very first glass i finished. usually i'll just grab a sip from the parents but now its different! i'm legal! haha. that was funny. this woman at Cheers didn't allow a girl who was 17 years and 364 days old to get a Bacardi. and she kept arguing that she was gonna turn 18 the next day. which was true la. although it was 11pm and she'd turn 18 at 12am. but ha! the woman was like, no no. you must pass 18 to buy it. OUCH. :(

and then 初二 i had this Sentosa Flowers job stint. going there again on tues and sat with chiew. i hope i don't lose my voice and get sick. been eating too much good food. haha. had dinner last night with Godpa at Roland's. heard its 80 per pax man! great food!! yums. and i want to eat more 魚生! just had my 1st yest. omgoodness thats so long since 除夕 please! i'm in agony! and there's only like 15 days to eat it. haha. and i got to try 盆菜 Poon Choi!

which kinda looks something like this (koped this from wiki),

sat night was this party at Uncle Paddy's which Ix Shen attended. HAHA. right. thats why Giffy and his friends were there. had class gathering at Tong's yest. felt so good to see familiar faces again! haha. esp the army boys with their crew cuts. lol.

yepp so i guess that's it. had my driving today again. kinda rusty after a week. i wanna go out to the road. BTT next week! :)

加油!

Labels: happy, sick, tired, yusheng

Samstag, Februar 9

China Part I 5:55 PM

i finally decided to sit down and type this out slowly... its been exactly a month since i stepped into China and i'm horribly missing the place! hmmm, except for qualms about the quality control controversies, i'm basically very happy about everything else! and the experience was great! perhaps i'll really go back in 2010 when Shanghai's having their IT Expo! they're already selling merchandise for this worldwide convention thing where the best and the highest-end technology flock to Shanghai to exhibit! damn cool. alright, shall start the ball rolling! *happy happy* but i've only edited up till Hangzhou so there's still the Shanghai pics left!

Day 1: 4 Jan 08 Fri 苏州
took the China Eastern flight out of SG at 10am! so much hype about Temasek Holding's bid of MU shares but then again there's China Airline's competition! haha. so anyway luckily it was a pretty smooth flight and we reached Shanghai Pudong Airport 上海浦東國際機場 at 3plus? and darn there was no freaking aerobridge! so we had to take the bus in the chilly weather (ok perhaps not THAT chilly but around 8deg) to the immigration area. and then had to wait irritatingly long to clear immigration can! oh man cannot tahan! like 45mins to 1 hr! haha :( and then i noticed something on the immigration card... they called people other then themselves ALIENS?! whoa. sounds harsh at first, but then again its just weird although dictionary.com says this;

al·ien [eyl-yuhn, ey-lee-uhn] –noun
1. a resident born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalization (distinguished from citizen).

2. a foreigner.

3. a person who has been estranged or excluded.

4. a creature from outer space; extraterrestrial.

so later we went to meet our tour guide... and ok it was a pathetic thing in a way that our tour group only consisted of the 3 of us, my grandma, mother and me but it was good cos we had our own minivan and all. there was actually another group of people whom we were supposed to join but they kinda kicked us out cos they wanted to be on their own and if there was more than 10 people everyone kinda had a $100 rebate kinda thing. so that group had 13 people, if they kicked us out they were still in the win-win situation but then we'll get $100 less lor. which was like... whatever la. anyway later part in the journey they had some 'karma'. haha but they were quite 欠扁 and cocky! all aunties and uncles~ ah well. and all of them smoked! :S

yep so anyhow we finally found our driver 元师傅 and then set off for Suzhou 苏州 straight. and it was about a 2 hr drive there so in the end we reached at dinner time! passed by the Suzhou Industrial Park 苏州工业园区 and the 金鸡湖景区 but we didnt go down cos i think it was closed alr. haha.

which to our horror was of 6 dishes excl rice! omg! and the serving size is wayyyyy huge as well. obviously the rest of the days later we didnt manage to finish everything. and all the food goes to waste :(

so after dinner we went to 观前街 to shop! yay shopping on the first day! and actually every single day after. not like korea. shopping in like 1 out of 7 days only. so pathetic. haha. and it was there where our local guide met us as well... since we went to 5 different places (excl 乌镇 cos our driver brought us around there) we had 5 different local guides...

and this was the S.H.E poster promoting some 观前街 shop i think. haha. so cute. the architecture is really superb! and it was about 8pm! luckily China shops dont close that early unlike other winter countries, where they start closing when night falls.

so i got like 1 pair of boots for like S$16! and another red bazhang jacket.. which i will wear in later photos for 1 day only cos the zip spoiled after that. haha. damn sad but it was S$6 only la! anddd Hello Kitty stuff! haaha although the Sanrio stuff aren't cheaper there. and some more they have those like made by the Shanghainese franchise. and not the original Jap ones. :(

saw the Meters/bonwe shop that Jay, Will and Angela endorse in China! damn cool. they had bigger outlets in Shanghai though. almost went on a shopping spree there but ... ah well, i'll elaborate when i'm at the Shanghai part. haha.

yep i saw this HK car! haha okay sorry i was scared the driver would suddenly come back and hantam me so i kinda just snapped too fast without reviewing and it turned out blur. haha. oops. after that we went back to the hotel...

so this was our hotel 蘇苑飯店! so nice la! it was a new hotel which has been opened for less than 6 months. haha. so pretty they had this pond and pavilion like thing at the center of the hotel there and was surrounded by neon lights at night!

and so that night after showering and cleaning up cos the air there was horrendously polluted. ok maybe not THAT bad but to the extent when you blow your nose and you see black dust mixed with your mucus. haha! yep disgusting kinda description. and i happily watched tv there! their channels are quite entertaining actually, and a whole different kind of entertainment genre.

Day 2: 5 Jan 08 Sat 苏州>无锡
so in the morning we finally had a taste of authentic Chinese breakfast in China. it was quite good actually. good spread of American breakfast type and porridge of some sort. after breakfast, we then went back to the pavilion place to explore. hahah!

and then went out to meet the local guide and mum went to take picture with the renowned-calligraphist painted hotel sign.

so then early we proceeded to 狮子林 which is considered No. 1 out of Suzhou's private gardens. scenic and filled with tourists as usual. haha. saw some Malaysian tourists there too. quite cool.
if i'm not wrong it was declared a UNESCO site as well. :) i guess i like those 古代建筑. really amazing to think that people were living in like these kind of architecture in the past!

haha saw a sign which reminded me of 一支獨秀! lol.. i think its 峰 la..and at this drinking tea place we had the most expensive tea in China, the 碧螺春! it actually has some queer but quaint taste and i kinda enjoyed it though i hated those hairs that come from the leaves.

can 欣赏 those antique furniture man! haha but sometimes too ancient to me already. yep, and this is the 碧螺春. heard you cant buy it cos its too ex or something. but this tea place for the elderly (yes, i was like the youngest there, next youngest my mother!) had it and you just had to pay for the water or something. haha its like 福利 for the old. but it was only exclusive to like a small group of people, so luckily there was only 4 of us! :)

then we went to the Choyers Silk Factory... yep to buy silk blankets and underlays! haha. it was quite cheap compared to departmental stores in Singapore la so we got like ALOT. haha think we spent almost S$700 there. lol. bought silk pillows too which we very very comfy! lol.

yep so had lunch there and then after that we went to this bridge thing where you can see the 瑞光塔. it wasn't in our itinerary but our local guide just decided to stop and let us look-see that area. it was quite cool cos there was this young girl blading on the pavement there. i cant even imagine myself blading during winter. haha freeze my as* off. and the people who constructed this bridge were so thoughtful to the extent that they built this small pathway beside the steps for bicycle-riders to roll their bikes down. and China is seriously bicycle-heavy la! they even have this 慢车道 specially for them. its like the roads are divided for cars and for bicycles. haha.

after sightseeing near the bridge, we went to another place which wasn't in the itinerary cos we had some last min changes. it was called 沧浪亭。if i'm not wrong its the oldest private garden in Suzhou, dating back since 1045! but i think it was renovated in 1843. but still very very long ago. 165 years at least man!

the water's considered clear cos you get to see the absolute reflection la! so pretttyyyy. haha. wonder whether inside really got fish or not.

so we walked around the area while our local guide 小陈 (LG) explained to us the history of the place... which actually disappears from your mind once you leave the place. ah well. gives you greater understanding at that exact moment so i guess its good anyhow. haha. oops. yep so after much looking around and enjoying the scenery we then headed back to the van which drove us to 无锡... another 3-4 hours of warming the van seat... :(

so upon arrival in 无锡 Wuxi, we met our LG 小朱 met us...and then my mother went to rat on me by saying, "哦，我的女儿很喜欢那个台湾偶像阿……也是叫小猪的！哈哈！" 0_0 haha right. and then she laughed... anw, 小豬 had a concert in 無錫 in like 07 mid nov la! wahlaoooo hahaha just like more than a month before i was there.

then we went to the 三国城. it was a filming venue for those 古装片 previously, like 三国演义 etc. uber cool in a sense that it was HUGE and very scenic but then again its like mostly the same few things, though they had some 壮观 places where they filmed like warriors charging forward with the palace as the back drop that kinda thing. haha kinda reminded me of 满城尽带黄金甲 (The Curse of the Golden Flower) scenes...

and then we sorta kena conned cos our LG advised us to book this mini buggy so that we could tour the place since my grandma couldn't tahan the walking.. (the place was really huge anyway) but it was like S$40! and i thought the sightseeing would last longer but then it was just dropping at a few places and then going down and searching for photo points etc... so we only stopped at 4, 5 areas? so probably not worth it for the whole journey.

and they had daily shows, as usual attractions would. some reenactment of scenes from 三国演义 which i hardly understood cos they spoke in heavy accent. haha. quite cool to see it 'live' and there were some fire works as well (real blasts etc), and the cute but smelly horses. haha.

the sunset was really pretty and Mum asked me to capture it but it so happened that camera lens cant exactly capture gorgeous sunsets, or so i assumed. :( what we saw from our eyes was this red-orangey glow in the horizon but what came out was like a white dot in the pastel-coloured sky. :( bah.

then we went back into the buggy to drive us to the harbour where we boarded the ancient warship 古战船 to circle (which was pretty small) around 太湖... we were supposedly brought to this fresh-water pearl rearing area but it was too foggy to be seen. bah!

this was before the white dot appeared. and it was super freaking foggy :( but we kinda experienced foggy weather through out, and before the snow storms arrived which caused China humongous economic losses.

ok pic below was just for laughs cos the guards left their posts. haha.

after 三国城, we went to this 陶瓷博物院 (or something like that). Its a Chinese Teapot Museum. which was quite boring except for admiring the works of art of the most famous teapot master and his disciples. yep. and then they kinda 'bugged' us to buy the products so we bought this cup for 老师 which i thought was a steal la. haha. oh well.

finally it was dinner and we had silver fish 银鱼 from 太湖! the people in 无锡 mostly derive their income from the 太湖 cos they like rear oysters inside it, catch fish etc... so they cooked this dish with some vege soup which was quite thick and it tasted quite nice actually. dunno why the silver fish there is smaller than those from the fried ones at Crystal Jade. haha.

after dinner we did some shopping at Parksons but ended up buying close to nothing cos it was still expensive. though they say dept stores sell like 'imported' stuff... but i was wondering, aren't major sports apparel all made in China and the most they had to pay was like shipping across states? hmmm... maybe other taxes i guess. :( so the Adidas apparel and all were slightly cheaper only, cant be compared to the prices at the Yeoju Premium Outlets in Seoul. :( bah. i regret again.

yep we got some strawberries which were cheap, fresh and big! :) yum yum the taste still lingers in my mouth! haha okay maybe in my mind. and then it was back to the hotel: 海兴酒店. with more watching tv cos S.H.E was on some concert there. and there was Will Pan too :D

xxxxx

okay i shall stop here for now. wow i actually took like 5 days to write this. but its also cny period la. ah well.

新年快樂！

:D

Labels: happy, holiday

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